Bob DeHaan writes:
> There is a new genre arising among Christian authors called "creative
> spiritual nonfiction." It is nonfiction because it has a historical
basis;
> it is based on fact, not pure imagination. It is creative because it
allows
> the author to deal with the facts of the case in a creative way, using
> his/her imagination. It is spiritual, rather than purely naturalistic, in
> that it allows the author to add a spiritual dimension or interpretation
to
> both facts and imagination.
>
> The authors of the gospels and other parts of the Bible seemed to have
> discovered this genre long before modern Christians writers reinvented it.
>
> Perhaps all nonscientific writers use the three elements of this genre in
> varying proportions.
>
> Bob
>
Bob's note has stirred a couple of thoughts. I agree with him entirely
that biblical writers combined historical tradition (the factual dimension)
with creative imagination and spiritual interpretation, and that this
quality of story-telling is universal and perhaps even an "innate"
characteristic of human communication. Two OT events come to mind. One is
the story of David and Goliath in I Sam. 17. Anyone who has studied
literary genres will recognize the numerous folktale elements in the story,
and it is these elements that give the story interest and delightfulness and
make it memorable. Another, and more powerful in its effect upon the
reader, is the story of the Exodus in Exod. 1-20 and following, which
combines historical tradition with drama and spirituality in a way that
reaches deeply into the human spirit, with our constant yearning for
freedom, intimacy with the divine, and a future that is open and purposeful,
even when fraught with danger and anxiety. Stories like the Exodus reach us
on the deepest level precisely because the inspired storyteller brings these
elements together in creative ways. Such stories become paradigms of the
human experience, as the Exodus has become for western civilization.
While it might not be apparent from such writings as the technical
papers in any issue of "Science," I'm not sure that I would limit creative
imagination or creative non-fiction to non-scientific writing. Certainly,
theory construction relies on creative imagination, usually employing
analogy, to make sense out of the raw data of scientific investigation.
Even more so, the public communication of science, particularly the
historical sciences, relies greatly on creative imagination to tell the
universe story, or the epic of evolution, or the life of the Neanderthals,
not unlike the way a historian reconstructs the life of Chief Tecumseh, or
the historical life of Jesus, different in intent from the gospels and
relying on the growing archeological and other evidence for life in the
Galilee in the first century CE. Some of the better known science
popularizers are popular in great part because they are rather good at
telling their story. While scientists might insist that their
reconstructions are carefully based on scientific data, I don't believe they
can tell a story about nature without "connecting the dots" through the use
of creative imagination. I would go so far even to say that some of these
popularizations may exhibit a spiritual dimension in the broad sense of that
term.
Bob Schneider
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